Petrobras is the 6th biggest company in Exchanges
Folha de S. Paulo - 05/20/2008
Petrobras surpassed Microsoft and the Chinese ICBC to become the sixth biggest company in the world in market value, according to data from Bloomberg. With an appreciation of almost 4% in the value of its shares, yesterday, the state-owned company was worth US$ 295.6 billion, surpassing by US$ 6 billion, in the market value, the largest international bank and by more than US$ 20 billion the American technology company. The appreciation in value of the papers of the Brazilian company is due to the high prices of oil and, mainly, to the confirmation of the Tupi's field potential oil reserves, in the second half of last year. In the end of last year the company was the 11th largest company in the world, and it was worth US$ 241.67 billion in Exchanges, more than twice its value in the end of 2006, when it was 39 positions below in the ranking, says a study from Ernst & Young. Petrobras is worth 59.3% of the value of rival ExxonMobil, which is the largest company in the world, with US$ 498.6 billion. This difference, however, has been diminishing. In 2006, the value of the Brazilian company represented 24.1% of the value of the American one. In the end of last year, it already represented 47.2%. This year, the preferred stocks of the state-owned company have gone 13.84% up, and Exxon's, 0.71%. Besides Petrobras and ExxonMobil, 4 of the 10 largest companies in market value in the world belong to the oil or mining sectors, which have profited from the strong international demand for raw materials, especially China's. Petrobras' profit, in the first quarter, was R$ 6.925 billion (US$ 4.2 billion), with an increase of 68% if compared to the same period of the previous year. It is the greatest profit in one quarter of the oil state-owned company since the period from April to June of 2006, when the profit was R$ 7.099 billion (US$ 3.26 billion). For the consulting company Economática, which takes into account the prices from Friday, Petrobras has became the third greatest company of the Americas in market value, estimated at US$ 287.17 billion. Ahead the Brazilian oil company, there are only the Americans ExxonMobil (US$ 489.64 billion) and General Electric (US$ 320.25 billion), which have kept their positions. Among the ten greatest companies, another Brazilian company appears in the list: mining company Vale, with a market value of US$ 196.49 billion. If we take the ranking with the 50 largest companies, Bradesco appears in 43rd place, worth US$ 67.247 billion.